Microsoft, Qualtrics ‘Vacuumed Up’ Private Data of Kaiser Permanente Website Users, Class Action Says

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims Microsoft, Qualtrics International and subsidiary Qualtrics LLC have “systematically” captured without consent the private information of Kaiser Permanente website users.

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The 48-page lawsuit says that Microsoft and Qualtrics, a cloud-based software platform, have illegally collected personal and medical information from website visitors without their knowledge or consent, primarily through tracking codes embedded into Healthy.KaiserPermanente.org. With these tracking tools, the companies have “vacuumed up” users’ federally protected health data and browsing activity, which can be used to identify an individual website visitor, the suit relays.

Kaiser Permanente provides the largest healthcare service plan in the U.S.—serving 12.6 million members—and operates hundreds of hospitals and medical facilities, the case shares. Members can use Healthy.KaiserPermanente.org to access the patient portal, through which they can book appointments, search for providers, manage prescriptions, review medical records and more, the complaint states.

Unbeknownst to Kaiser members, however, the website utilizes tracking codes called software development kits (SDK), supplied by Microsoft and Qualtrics, that capture a visitor’s private health data and every move they make on a webpage, the filing explains. When a member enters the website, Microsoft’s SDK and Qualtrics’s “Site Intercept” tracking tool gather a “vast array” of user information, including the URLs of each page visited, search terms, data about viewed videos, prescription details, medical conditions and records, immunization information and allergy lists, the lawsuit says.

The suit stresses that the data intercepted by the defendants enables them to link particular visitors to their personal information and browsing activity, in brazen violation of privacy law.

As the case tells it, users are unaware that their information is being captured because Microsoft and Qualtrics “covertly employ their tracking code such that Kaiser [members] have no indication that their web activity is transmitted to [the defendants].”

The Jane Doe plaintiff, a California resident, has used Kaiser’s website many times throughout her 10 years as a member, the complaint shares. In doing so, the filing claims, the defendants have illegally intercepted the woman’s private information without her knowledge or consent.

The suit contests that Microsoft and Qualtrics’s unlawful conduct “must be stopped.”

In a similar case out of California, Kaiser Permanente itself faces allegations that it knowingly shared private data with third parties through numerous tracking codes embedded into its website. That suit, filed on May 9 in California, alleges Kaiser Permanente has illegally disclosed consumers’ private information and communications to Quantum Metric, Google, Bing, Adobe, Twitter and other third parties.

The lawsuit detailed on this page looks to represent any current or former Kaiser members residing in the United States whose personal information and/or private medical data was captured by Microsoft and/or Qualtrics while using Healthy.KaiserPermanente.org.

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